New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday slapped an exemplary cost of Rs1 lakh on an NGO, which in its PIL had sought a direction for a countrywide ban on liquor.
A bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman dismissed the PIL filed by Andhra Pradesh-based Chaitanya Sravanthi after hearing its counsel Sravan Kumar.
The bench rejected the PIL at the admission stage and did not assign any reason.
The petitioner said it was the duty of the State to bring prohibition on the consumption, except for medicinal purposes, of intoxicating drinks and of drugs, which are injurious to health. Due to the lack of a uniform policy similar to the ban on tobacco, drinking of alcohol was increasing day by day, resulting in deaths due to alcohol-related health problems, increase in crime, financial loss to the people especially daily wage labourers and illiterates.
The NGO said that due to the addiction of alcohol among the people, right from adolescents to senior citizens, accidents, domestic violence and crimes were increasing. It said it is firmly believed that 62.5 million people in India at least occasionally drink alcohol. Unlike many western countries, the consumption of alcohol in India was witnessing a dramatic rise.
In the past two decades the number of people who have consumed alcohol had moved from one in 300 to one in 20. More than half of those who consume alcohol would fall into the category of hazardous drinkers.
International breweries and distillers of alcoholic beverages are keen to become popular in India, because it potentially offers the third largest market for their products globally.
Most urban areas have witnessed an explosion in the number of bars and night clubs, it said, and prayed for a direction to all the states to enforce the ban on sale and consumption of liquor.
